Wednesday I added two Amano shrimp. I didn't think the bigger of the two was initially going to make it, as it was upside down in the bag just laying there when I got home. But it got over it's shock and is doing fine. Yesterday, both shrimp were active all over the tank, especially the smaller shrimp.

Today however, the smaller shrimp is MIA. I do not see it anywhere. Don't know if it is hiding, if it is stuck somewhere, or if it's just dead and missing. Don't think it could get out of the tank, as there's probably about 1.5" of glass above the water line plus it has the lid on. I guess the lid is loose in a few places where the cords enter the tank, but still. Another possibility is that it's somehow stuck in the moss wall plastic grid, but it was happily going in and out from behind that all day yesterday, and I can't see it in there.

I'm hoping it molted and is hiding somewhere, but I don't see a molt.

The bigger of the two that I can still see I'm a bit confused about. It's not as clear as most Amano I've seen. I keep wondering if it's some other species. It's basically similar to the other shrimp and pics I've seen, but it's more creamy in color. It's mainly hung out on the wood and grazed, where the smaller shrimp was all over the whole tank all day yesterday eating everything.

Thoughts?

Also, yesterday I got and planted my Marsilea Minuta.

Got to learn how to take better pics. I'll try to upload progress shots soon. I was planning to order some Pumpkin Shrimp off of aquabid today to hopefully have them shipped and in before it gets colder here next week, but now I'm wondering what's going on.

EDIT: I also switched from the old 50W heater I had from 12+ years ago as it seemed to vary more than I liked. Got a 50W Finnex Digital Titanium heater. Seems to keep temps a bit more stable.

Since I updated, I got 12 pumpkin neos off of Aquabid. Looked pretty good. All very small for the most part. One female was a little bigger than the rest. Seemed to ship well and settle well into the tank.

Surprisingly today, the largest female is berried. Weird. Didn't think she was big enough, but cool nonetheless.

I'd also bought two more Amanos prior to adding the pumpkins. So I had 3 Amanos after the first one went exploring across the carpet as mentioned above. 2 Originals - 1 wandering shrimp + 2 new ones.

Today again I have two Amanos, after another one tried to escape by climbing up the filter and getting stuck. Gah. I really don't know how to control that. I thought running the water a bit lower to create more turbulence where the water dumps in the tank might have been helping, but I don't know. I'm going to look into getting some acrylic or lexan maybe to cut a new top that I can make fit flusher, but I need to figure out a way to secure it on the lip of the glass (or within the lip). Since I switched heaters, this new one causes the glass to have a bit more gap between the top and the tank, which is where they're trying to escape.

Sorry, wasn't clear. The Amanos climb up the side of the filter between the edge and glass, then get up top and try to get out over the lip. It's not the filter, it's the access it gives them to potentially escape. Combined with the fat heater cable on the Finnex titanium I swapped in, they've been able to fit through the gap between the top and the tank lip.

I picked up some acrylic from HD. Going to try to cut a sheet so that I can provide a notch for the heater cable. Will replace the glass top.

Need to take some more shots of the tank as stuff are growing in. I'll try to do that soon. I've gotten a bit of algae back as I've noticed my nitrates coming back up. Doing some small water changes to try to reduce that.

Updates since the last pics:
+2 Amanos
+12 Orange Neo shrimp
+baby orange neos in the last week or so. No idea how many.
+Marsilea Minuta
+Christmas moss on wall and small rock in front of driftwood
+Subwassertang on rock up front as well as in the center of the driftwood root

The Rotela is growing in very well, as is the Crypt Wendetii. The pennywort grows like crazy. The Ludwigia repens isn't doing as well as I initially thought. I think it was too shaded by the filter, and the bottom leaves died back. It's coming back, but slowly. I wish I'd put the Rotela indicaon the left to better hide the filter and the rotela on the right.

The moss wall looks like crap, but hopefully it will fill in. Shrimp like hiding in and behind it, and are as the moss grows in, they do seem to feed on it. I can always pull it if I decide I don't like it.

The water is low as a protective measure to keep the Amanos from surfing up the filter and escaping again. I have lost two that way so far.

I've got some hair algae. Not too bad, and easy to control. I initially had diatom algae as well, but it seems to be backing off as the tank gets more established. I keep thinking about getting a couple of otos, but I'm not sure they'll eat the algae that I have. I'd feed some small algae pellets anyway, so hopefully they'd be fine either way if I got them.

Another thing I think I'd like to add is a floating plant of some type. I actually have some duckweed that came in with the shrimp I ordered, but I'm not sure I want to have that get in this tank. Looks like you'd never be able to get rid of it. Was thinking either frogbit or Asian water moss (Salvinia Cucullata). Probably will wait until the weather warms up a bit to order some from somewhere.

I'm thinking about getting a few fish of some sort. I've got a seed shrimp infestation, and was thinking maybe something that might graze on those critters, but hopefully not take down too many pumpkin babies.

Would Endler's be too aggressive with my shrimp? I've been reading a bit about Least Killifish, but I'd not have a local source of those at a LFS, as I've never seen them. Plus, I'm not sure if they'd eat the seed shrimp or not. I also saw some CPD's at the LFS today as well as some Scarlet Badis and some kind of small rasbora that I forgot the name of.

From what I've read, the seed shrimp don't hurt anything, they're just a bit unsightly. I don't really feed very much at all, so I'm not why I've got an outbreak. I assume they came in on some of the plants or something.

More baby shrimp today. I only have the one female mature enough to berry at this point, and this is her second batch of babies.

I was thinking today about something to better hide the filter on the left back. Wonder how well Cryptocoryne balansae would do in replacement of the Ludwigia? Would that get too tall? Any other tallish crypts that might work?

I haven't gotten any good ones, but then I really haven't tried too hard. I'll try to get some soon.

I'm not really sure I know how orange these should be. The breeding female looks really nice and solid pumpkin, some are just a bit lighter. I think some of them are just young to be fully colored.

I have two that I think are males that are more tangerine. One looks too close to a RCS for my taste on a pumpkin, and I might cull it. Been thinking about setting up a simple bowl for plant cuttings and shrimp culling. (I see the path back to multiple tanks in my mind. Trying to stay off of it for a bit )

Quote:

This tank has turned into quite the gorgeous setup. It's a far cry from the beginning shots you shared in October.

Thanks. I like it, but I also see room for it to improve. Still some filling in that needs to happen, too.

Going along pretty good. Getting a bit tired of the pennywort uprooting any time I do anything in the tank, so I'm thinking about putting something on that left side in it's place, maybe even in the back to try to hide the filter a bit better. Ideas on low to medium light stuff? I was thinking possibly a taller crypt since the Wendtii has done so well.

I've been letting some of the pennywort float for awhile now. I still kind of want something like Salvinia Cucullata or Frogbit.

It's not like I don't have a bunch of 10G tanks in the garage, a 75G, a 45 tall, and a 40B. Why did I buy another little tank?

One thought was to throw culled pumpkins in there, and my wenditii is needing to be thinned.

$34 seemed a really good price. Would have preferred a similar sale on a 6 or an 8, but you take what you get.

Now to do some reading on all the mods I've seen on these things.

EDIT: Something I meant to mention above that other people might find of use. I'd read a lot of people using tree leaves in tanks. Obviously Indian almond leaves are the most talked about, but I'd read you could also use things like oak or fruit tree leaves as well. My shrimp seem to like the Bradford pear leaves better than the oak I've tried.

Bradfords are those trees used a lot in decorative plantings, but contractors building houses, etc. They grow fast, don't really have fruit, and have very pretty white blossoms prior to the leaves coming out in the Spring. Unfortunately they're known to break easily in the wind when they get too thick, so they're kind of disposable trees.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Planted Tank Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Location

Your Location. As precise as you feel comfortable with.

Security Question

While balancing on a piece of wood, two inches by four inches known as a 2x4, John and his friend Sally both spotted a dalmatian inside of a truck with sirens. The animal with John and Sally is a _ _ _?

Insurance

Please select your insurance company (Optional)

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.